Black.
Twibil saw black.
Nothing but black.
She couldn't even see her own forehooves if she held them in front of her face—and she did.
The ever-increasing pain was gone. Every moment on the cold ground had been a moment of agony for Twibil. The initial reaction that everypony had had was glued to her mind. They were worried, but mostly they were curious why a random mare was on the ground screaming a somewhat agonized version of Songly Joy.
Twibil didn't know what had happened but figured it was because of sleep deprivation... that was, if sleep deprivation could put you in a coma. She hadn't slept all day, so it only made since in the kind of context. But could that actually happen? What did happen, exactly?
It was a behemoth pain in the lower abdominal region, specifically. The pain had been whisked away in a heartbeat, but it had been, for the single minute that it had happened, utterly unbearable.
Twibil kicked her hooves so she could try moving around. She didn’t feel her body, nor her hooves, touch anything. It was almost like she was floating... Could that be the case? Whatever or wherever it was—she could tell she was, indeed, floating.
Not a sound was to be heard. Not a ground was to be felt. An imaginary question mark carved its way into the brain of Twibil.
She called: "Hello?" She felt her vocal cords vibrate, but no sound whatsoever came out. That hello was instead a thought to her now. Hello? Am I asleep?
Blink
She jumped back (shook violently for a moment and eased backwards as she floated).
Before her was a large object. She didn't know how she could see it, but it was there. Dimly-lit, but she could make it out clearly: an egg. A gigantic, oversized, mysterious egg. She put a hoof on it and felt the surface. It was choppy.
Nothing but black, and there's an egg? Forsaken Celestia, what's going on!
Crack
The egg was hatching. Bright white light that could blind a pony staring directly point blank at any of them emerged from the cracks.
The egg continued cracking until a large, crooked line was formed all the way from top to bottom.
Crack Crack
The egg had stopped cracking. The light from the egg and its cracks dissipated into a little glow in the center. Twibil had to hard-squint at it. It was like someone was shining a flashlight from the inside.
Without warning, the light grew and grew bigger. When the light reached the walls of the egg, the egg grew with it... and then it exploded.
Twibil was blinded by the stray beams of light. She hardly had enough time to close her eyes.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed that some of the particles of light had dissipated within the great ebony and turned into giant glistening globs. Stars. Some particles of light remained, and the ones that did came together in the center of Twibil's vision to form... a pendulum. A swinging pendulum.
Tick Tick Tick
Twibil didn't know how or why, but she couldn't take her eyes off of it. Was it the way it moved...? Was it the bright light illuminating from it? Whether or not, she was scared. But she couldn't do anything about it. Her body felt like it was in a cocoon of glue, she thought she was going to be stuck like this forever.
Tick Tick Tick
Dong Dong Dong
The pendulum started to swing faster, and the light that illuminated from it began to change colors. Blue, red, green, white—repeat—blue, red, green, white—repeat—blue, red, green, white...
Someway, somehow, Twibil wasn't having a seizure. It was addicting to look at, yet all the lights flashing from it should have caused her to fall (or float) over and twist and turn heavily. But it didn't.
Blue, red, green, white—repeat—blue, red, green, white—repeat—blue, red, green, white—repeat—blue, red, green, white—repeat—blue, red, green, white—
Blink
...bubbles.
They all surrounded Twibil. Most of them were clear, like a normal bubble, but others had a bright golden glow.
Wha—what? Twibil thought. She kicked her legs back and paddled across the vast (or: mostly crowded—but bubbles, so why not?) opening. Through the bubbles, she couldn't make out the ebony of the dark—nor could she make out the stars of the ebony.
She was in some trance. An egg, a pendulum, and now: bubbles. What's next? A gigantic snake? She was tired of the thought of "wherever" or "whatever," now it was what now?
What now, Twibil? said the bubbles to her pupils.
At the realization that she may never wake up, she began hyperventilating. Her chest was pumping in and out, air (air?) was going in through her mouth and escaping, but, instead of hearing no sound, she heard a vast, endless, repeating echo of her own breath. She reminded herself to best not shout out. If she did so much as that, it could bounce right back into her ears and make her deaf. Could be for a few moments, could be permanently.
A golden bubble floated in front of her. She could make out images in it, but they were too blurry to see. She threw her hooves out, tilting forward a bit as she floated, and grasped it.
6:00 A.M.
There was a little voice in the back of her head that sounded like a choir of whispered curses.
She stared at the bubble.
The golden glow suddenly got brighter, and she was trapped within the clutches of its light as it singed her eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Twibil, wake up!" A hoof was shaking her. For a moment, her body tensed, then she relaxed. It had been a dream. When she opened her eyes—Wait! I didn't mean to do that!
Twibil was in her body, and she could see out of her body, but she couldn't control it. She was nothing but a little voice in the back of her own head. She could do nothing but think of, *Gasp*
"Wh—hmm...?" muttered the full-of-life (but no caffeine) Twibil. Her eyes were only partially open, but she could make out the figure of her mother clear enough.
Her mom was leaning over her, candle in horn aura. There was a plate of scrambled eggs on top of the dresser right next to her bed. Again? What does she need now? The thought ran through the head (mind?) of disembodied voice Twibil.
"I need your help in the kitchen. The Summer Sun Celebration is tonight and the Princess will be there. I only need your help for about an hour, then you can go back to sleep if you'd like." Wait... the Summer Sun Celebration?
Full-of-life Twibil shifted in bed for a moment. "...okay..." she muttered softly.
"Get up and eat your breakfast. We'll start in ten minutes." Her mom left the room, with-that-said.
Full-of-life Twibil sat up in her bed. Comfy is a stress reliever for the workaholic, said the bed to her body. Even disembodied voice Twibil felt cozy in it.
No! Don't leave it, yet! she thought. Disembodied voice Twibil was afraid knowing that she couldn't control her own body functions, but was happy that she could still see and feel.
Full-of-life Twibil picked up the plate of eggs and began to chow down.
After depleting it completely, she put the plate back down on the dresser. If disembodied voice Twibil could hear the thoughts of full-of-life Twibil, it would probably be: Num, num—yum, yum! But disembodied voice Twibil was more worried about what was going on. She was in her own head. In her own head, being her own thoughts, and looking through... her own... eyes. Telling that to a random pony would immediately sound odd.
They were separate beings in one. One, entirely, physically, nonexistent. The other—full of life—was basking in the morning glory without a mug of black coffee to get the proper basking out of it.
And now she was back to the benefit of her day—the morning. A piece of the day that she had already experienced. How? was the question. Not How was...? as in How was the trip? It was How is? How is this possible?
How was it possible that a simple speck of herself was present in the subconscious of her own mind—in a body frail from the void of her disembodied voice—on a day that happened yesterday? That, she would possibly never find out.
A bubble—the same bubble that Twibil held in her hooves, swiveled around in her line of vision.
For a split second, she could move again, for she was in her own body.
But the bright light that illuminated once more singed her eyes.
Blink
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twibil was, once again, surrounded by bubbles. She was still holding the one that she believed had been what caused her to go into her trance (trance?). She floated around, looked at all the bubbles.
A glisten caught the side of her eye.
She turned.
A bubble off in the distance—not golden with a glow but clear—was waving an imaginary hoof at her. Come here, said that imaginary hoof.
Twibil—hooves still latched to the bright golden bubble—floated toward the clear bubble. A strange aura came off of it. Something told her something. She didn't know what that something was, but that something was telling her to bring the golden bubble closer.
She did as that something told her to do and held the golden bubble next to the clear one. The two vibrated when she brought them close to each other. Twibil had to let go as heat rose off both bubbles. They swiveled around in front of her eyes, and, without warning, quickly forged together and...
Pop
Blink
Twibil fluttered her eyes open.
She was in her room. It had only been a dream.
She glanced over at her alarm clock. What sat on top was a little blue bear; on its belly was a crescent moon with a yellow star hanging from its tip. The clock read 6:00 A.M.
She wasn't in pain—whatever that had been last night was gone now. But she was more concerned about that dream.
That dream would have to be ignored, though, because for now... sleep.
Twibil closed her eyes, hoping that the dream wouldn’t take over again.